The first time I ever saw the specific quality in the business
world,
I couldn't put a finger on exactly what it was I was seeing. Yes, I
immediately recognized it as
extraordinary.
But to tell you the truth, I couldn't say exactly what it
was that was so
extraordinary
about it.

The dinner was set around a massive circular table in the company
boardroom. The CEO and his executive team were
sitting
around the table when I joined them. What I saw and heard of that
group during that dinner, and the way I experienced them as I
sat
with them, was unlike anything I had experienced in the business
world
before.

When I was in my teens and in science class in high school, we did
an experiment in which we laid a clean sheet of white paper on a
flat board. On top of it we placed a magnet. Then, raising the
board up slightly, we sprinkled iron filings over the magnet and on
the paper around it, while gently tapping the board. The iron
filings lined up on the paper and around the magnet
in the shape of the magnetic field emanating from the
magnet. You probably did this same experiment yourself in high
school, yes?

That, I thought, is what the group
sitting
around the CEO is like. They were fully and naturally aligned with
him. The group was "as one". Groups "as one" weren't new to me.
But this group, this "as one" group of executives aligned ie
clearly aligned with their CEO and founder as if they
were all comprising the same magnetic field (so to
speak), was new to me. It wasn't until another twenty years or so
had passed before I could distinguish and articulate what I had
seen.

When I started to read and experience and getWerner Erhard's new
breakthrough work with leadership,
it altered everything I had previously thought
leadership
was all about. My earliest model of
a leader
was someone like the knight who carries the flag on his trusty
steed and, with a blood-curdling scream, yells
"Cha-a-a-a-rge!", at which everyone follows him into
battle.
OK, so there's literally no knights on steeds doing
battle
in
the world
of business today. But still, that was my model: the
leader
is the guy who yells "Cha-a-a-a-rge!", and all the other guys
follow.

Now, if you're one of the guys who follow, basically you have to buy
into what the guy who yells "Cha-a-a-a-rge!" is selling, for
him to
lead
you. And in that paradigm, if you're the
leader
yelling "Cha-a-a-a-rge!", you have to sell your audience
(which means the other guys have to buy into) whatever you're yelling
"Cha-a-a-a-rge!" about - that is, if you're going to be a
leader.

That's the model on which (until now) most of our
leadership
theories, schools of thought, and teaching have focused: the guy on his
trusty steed who yells "Cha-a-a-a-rge!" must sell it to all the other
guys who have to buy in to what he's selling. If he doesn't sell it
successfully, or if they don't (or are unwilling to) buy into what he's
selling, he can't
lead
and they can't be
led.

Fast forward from there to the group of executives
sitting
around their CEO and founder like iron filings expressing his
magnetism, and you have a
breakthrough
in
leadership
if you will: from buying into whatever the leader yells
"Cha-a-a-a-rge!" about, to simply being aligned with the
leader.
The former is
leadershipby doing, by daring, even by cajoling. But whatever it
is, in this paradigm the other guys have to buy into it, for this
model of
leadership
to be effective.
The latter, on the other hand, is
leadership
by simply being,
leadership
by
Self,
leadership
by inspiration. In the tired old
battlefield
model, the
leader
is the one
leading
by yelling "Cha-a-a-a-rge!". In the new boardroom model, the
leader
is the one
leading
by
being a
leader.